FERC 2021 Year in Review (Jan 2022)
Can FERC be reformed? Can pigs fly?
In January of 2021 Biden appointed longtime Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner Richard Glick to be the chair of FERC. FERC is the agency responsible for permitting all interstate energy projects, but has always been a rubber stamping agency for the fossil fuel industry. Since joining FERC Glick had been a stalwart critic of FERC’s lack of attention to greenhouse gas emissions and the kafkaesque process by which FERC makes decisions.
With Glick as chair and Democratic control over FERC, there was a great hope for major internal reform. FERC seemed destined to play an outsized role within the Biden administration’s climate agenda. A loose agenda in the early stages of 2021 outlined a focus on: updating transmission systems, the creation of the Office of Public Participation, environmental justice analysis, and cumulative greenhouse gas assessments within the energy project approval process.
Is it possible for FERC to be reformed from within? Beyond Extreme Energy has taken a long hard look at the first year of ‘progressive FERC’ and written a FERC 2021 Year in Review. We get into was promised, what has and hasn’t been delivered, and the limitations of ‘tinkering under the hood’ in the face of the climate crisis.
Check out the FERC 2021 Year in Review and a presentation version here:
Beyond Extreme Energy 